The BEST Episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!

Distinctly different from the grim, violent, and dark MIRAGE comics from which the Turtles originated, this version of the franchise has remained the longest running, and most memorable, version of all. Four turtles fall into the sewers and are befriended by Hamato Yoshi a Japanese man sent to New York who was forced to live in the sewers. One day he sees a strange green glow which transforms the four turtles into human-like creatures. Hamato (now Master Splinter) changes into a giant rat from the green glow and teaches the turtles the skills of the ninja as they team up with Channel 6 news reporter April O'Neil to battle against Yoshi's arch enemy Shredder and Krang, an alien warlord from Dimension X.

#1 - The Starchild

Season 7 - Episode 15 - Aired Dec 18, 1993

A small alien being, named Quirx, crash-lands on Earth, with intergalactic stormtroopers in hot pursuit. The Turtles must figure out how to get Quirx back to his home planet, before Earth is destroyed.

#2 - The Wrath of Medusa

Season 9 - Episode 3 - Aired Sep 30, 1995

Dregg hires an alien bounty hunter named Medusa to help capture the Turtles. The Turtles must fight off this new threat. Meanwhile, Carter realises that he is more of a hindrance than a help. Meanwhile, an alien slug, called a Slorr, hatches & begins terrorising the city.

#3 - Carter, the Enforcer

Season 9 - Episode 7 - Aired Oct 28, 1995

Dregg plans to build a Star Shield, a device that Dregg claims will protect Earth from hostile alien invaders. Meanwhile, the Turtles, with the help of April & her mini-cam, hope to expose Dregg for the fraud that he is. The Turtles also find out that Dregg has built an android replica of Cater.

Season 3 - Episode 44 - Aired Nov 24, 1989

#5 - Splinter No More

Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired Dec 3, 1988

Sensing Master Splinter's despair at his new life as a rat, the Turtles agree to use the small amount of mutagen that they have left to concoct a formula that will revert Splinter back into Yoshi. The experiment is a success and Yoshi decides to take a stroll, as a human, through the city.
Meanwhile, April is reporting Public Service Announcements from the local library when spies Rocksteady and Bebop. She immediately contacts the Turtles who head straight for the library where they encounter Shredder.
It seems that Shredder has stumbled onto a spell that will enable him to open a portal to any dimension he chooses.The Turtles find a reference to a temple in an old subway terminal somewhere under the city.

#6 - Doomquest

Season 9 - Episode 8 - Aired Nov 4, 1995

An interdimensional being called Doomquest comes to Earth to try to get a powerful crystal from Lord Dregg. The turtles find that their unstable mutations are now starting to cause them to lose their intelligence whenever they mutate into their new forms. In the end, April is able to successfully expose Lord Dregg's true intentions to the world.

#7 - Atlantis Awakes

Season 7 - Episode 23 - Aired Dec 4, 1993

The Turtles discover an Atlantean city, not in ancient Greece, but in modern times. After meeting Merdude, in reality is the true King of Atlantis, the Turtles must defeat Shredder & dethrone Bebop, who been set up as a puppet king.

#8 - Leatherhead: Terror of the Swamp

Season 3 - Episode 30 - Aired Oct 14, 1989

While Raphael is reliving the past, via the Turtles' photo album, their Frog friends in the Florida Swamps (Napolean Bonafrog, Genghis Frog, and Rasputin) are being terrorized by a mutant alligator known as Leatherhead, who makes them his slaves. They decide to call the Turtles for help. Meanwhile, Krang's scanner picks up Leatherhead's activities and he sends Shredder, Rocksteady and Bebop to the same Florida Swamp to retrieve the mutant alligator and use him to help defeat the Turtles.
But no sooner do the Turtles and April arrive when they are captured by Leatherhead. The Frogs turn the tables and help the Turtles capture Leatherhead.
Shredder and company arrive in the Florida Swamp and stumble upon the Turtles and April, the Frogs and Leatherhead. They decide to track them for awhile before charging in and attacking. Sure enough he finds his golden opportunity when he rescues Leatherhead from the quicksand that the Turtles, the Frogs, and Leatherhead have fallen into.

#10 - The Fifth Turtle

Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired Oct 3, 1989

Dressed in their human disguises, Donatello and Raphael venture out of their Turtle lair to buy supplies to make pizza. On their way back, via what they believe to be a shortcut, they are "intercepted" by a gang of young street Punks. Suddenly, a young boy wearing a Turtle costume, and who calls himself Zack: "Master Ninja Turtles and the Scourge of Evil Doers", drops in out of nowhere. As he prepares to defend Donatello and Raphael, he falls flat on his face, allowing the real Turtles to dispatch the punks with ease. Afterwords, Zack explains how he wants to help them fight crime -- but Raphael tells him that he is more of a menace than a crime fighter. The kid leaves in a huff, picking up Donatello's Turtle-Com -- which he had lost in the scuffle with the would-be attackers.

#13 - The Dimension X Story

Season 4 - Episode 30 - Aired Sep 1, 1990

Shredder has a plan to destroy the Turtles, but with the Technodrome's portal out of commission, he is unable to challenge them on Earth, so he uses the Dimensional Teleporter to bring his enemies to Dimension X.

#15 - Leonardo, the Renaissance Turtle

Season 5 - Episode 17 - Aired Oct 9, 1991

A mad professor named Mindbender creates a law-enforcement robot named "LEX" to clean up crime in New York, but LEX ultimately starts arresting numerous innocent people for the smallest infraction. With the other Turtles unreachable, Leonardo must discover his own innate skills to stop this rogue robot before he and Mindbender declare themselves dictators of the city.

#16 - Planet of the Turtleoids (2)

Season 5 - Episode 22 - Aired Sep 7, 1990

With Herman the Horrible defeated and exposed as two renegade Turtleoid delegates on Shell-Ri-La, the Turtles return to Earth, where they must destroy Shredder's new Technodrome Mark II and then defeat Chrome Dome.

#18 - Funny, They Shrunk Michelangelo

Season 4 - Episode 21 - Aired Oct 8, 1990

When Michelangelo decides to put one of Donatello's inventions on max power for his own entertainment, he ends in a--quite literally--little problem. April and Vernon get caught in the shrinking ray while getting footage of a military ship and join Michelangelo on his wild adventure.

#19 - Enter: Krakus

Season 8 - Episode 6 - Aired Oct 15, 1994

Still after the Flux Transformer, Titanus & his mutants track its unique electronic signals, in order to locate it & get it back. Meanwhile, the Turtles have their hands full, when an enforcer named Krakus shows up. The Turtles must find out who Krakus is & whether he is friend or foe.

#20 - A Thing About Rats

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired Dec 12, 1987

Baxter Stockman, a mad scientist, is showing an exterminator his new invention a rat catching robot called Mousers.
The exterminator rejects Stockman's offer, however Shredder decides to buy his inventions. He unleashes a dozen mousers into the sewers they are easily defeated by Splinter. The Turtles track the one responsible for the mechanical rats to his hide where they encounter Krang.

#22 - Michelangelo's Birthday

Season 3 - Episode 31 - Aired Oct 17, 1989

It's Michelangelo's birthday, but none of his brothers seem to remember, and it frustrates him greatly. Meanwhile, Shredder and Krang discover what is possibly an 'anti-mutagen' that, after testing it on three rock soldiers, can undo mutations. Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady are sent to use it on the Turtles, and our heroes have a few close calls.

#25 - Beware the Lotus

Season 3 - Episode 28 - Aired Oct 12, 1989

Krang hires a female Ninja, Lotus, to replace Shredder. It seems that Lotus has agreed to help Krang locate the Turtles in exchange for 100 pounds of gold. To prove her worthiness, and Shredder's unworthiness, Lotus defeats him with her Ninja skills. Shredder, Rocksteady and Bebop leave the Technodrome with their tails between their legs vowing that Krang will someday beg to have them back. Meanwhile, Burne assigns April and Vernon to do a special story on romance. At the Olaf Perfume Factory, April interviews a Monsieur Olaf, who reveals that he has a 'Scent Analyzer' that can 'sniff out' any fragrance. But, while protected by three armed guards, is suddenly stolen by Lotus and in its place, she leaves a lotus flower. A short time later, Lotus visits Aqua Land and steals from Dr Gilman, a marine biologist, his complete file on his study of genetic codes of turtles. Once again she leaves a lotus flower in its place.